Marketing 101
eddys...@hotmail.com
Something I picked up in marketing 101
1) Grab every opportunity to talk about your next product in the
pipeline
2) Do not *ever* talk about the product after that
The reasoning behind that is pretty simple : if your customers waiting
for product 1.0 to come out hear about version 2.0 coming out next and
containing all these new bells and whistles, they’ll hold of buying
1.0
Now, a number of wargame developers have walked into that trap -
including Arjuna :) - but the most recent incident is a good example
of how not to promote the upcoming game which might safe your
company : Battlefront’s Steve Grammont announcing Combat Mission :
Normandy 2.0
http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1143452&postcount=113
Oh, yeah, about point 1) did I mention all the cool new features in
BFTB yet ? :)
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
KG_Jag
<eddyster...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Something I picked up in marketing 101
>
> 1) Grab every opportunity to talk about your next product in the
> pipeline
>
> 2) Do not *ever* talk about the product after that
>
> The reasoning behind that is pretty simple : if your customers waiting
> for product 1.0 to come out hear about version 2.0 coming out next and
> containing all these new bells and whistles, they’ll hold of buying
> 1.0
>
> Now, a number of wargame developers have walked into that trap -
> including Arjuna :) - but the most recent incident is a good example
> of how not to promote the upcoming game which might safe your
> company : Battlefront’s Steve Grammont announcing Combat Mission :
> Normandy 2.0
>
>
> Oh, yeah, about point 1) did I mention all the cool new features in
> BFTB yet ? :)
>
> Greetz,
>
> Eddy Sterckx
Battlefront has now told us that they will issue a series of games/
modules with a planned life span of about 6 months each. These will
cover a particular topic (e.g. 1944 summer fightiing in France--except
for the landings) and be called a game "family". Every 2 to 3 years
this "family" will be redone for your buying pleasure.
So Battlefront is moving from the classic CM x 1 series, designed as
games that they wanted to play [quality and depth]--to a [quantity
based] business model where selling lots or little games and modules
(and then reselling them in the form of "updated" versions of
essentially the same thing) is the plan.
eddys...@hotmail.com
> So Battlefront is moving from the classic CM x 1 series, designed as
> games that they wanted to play [quality and depth]--to a [quantity
> based] business model where selling lots or little games and modules
> (and then reselling them in the form of "updated" versions of
> essentially the same thing) is the plan.
There’s only one reason for this : guaranteeing (or trying to) a
continuous revenue stream. Nothing wrong with that and it’s something
all wargame developers are struggling with, but there are a couple of
flies in the ointment here :
1) Will the flaws of CM:SF which kept many original CM players from
making the jump be rectified ? There’s just one guy who has to code
*everything* and with what has been announced so far he’ll be busy
until the next decade and beyond.
2) The guys behind Panzer Command are working on a Western Front game
– if they can beat Battlefront to the punch and/or offer a wider
scope / more units / more maps then CM:Normandy will be too little too
late. Panzer Command does have a QB generator too …
3) This slicing and dicing of software to get a continuous revenue
stream is something companies grudgingly accepted for their business
software but it remains to be seen if the same applies to non-
essential entertainment software. It all depends on the price too of
course but to me it seems that Battlefront is making very, very thin
slices for a marginally lower price than a full game.
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
KG_Jag
It's even a bit worse than that. If you are only interested in the
Brits in the summer of '44, you can not just buy that piece and play.
You must first buy the base game for the CMN "family" (which has only
U.S. forces) so you can then plug in the Brit module. Does this sound
anything like what's doing on (except on a much bigger scale and
without the complications of involving two different game designing
entities)...say at Matrix?
Further slices this thin--and interdependent on top of that--runs a
serious risk of customer fatigue; followed by customers fading away.
All of this assumes that CMN will not be the incomplete and bug
riddled mess that CMSF was at release...and for a long time
thereafter. If that happens again--BF is toast in any case.